Tag Archives: sunlight

Usually I desaturate my colors a bit. Todays pic isn’t saturated any more than what came out of the camera, but I did lots of post processing that added to the joyous color explosion seen above. Enjoy these glorious flowers in their prime.

BTW, I’m starting to add a light layer over my images more and more… this is using a layer of soft light in Photoshop at about 60%. It really does crazy, beautiful things to your photos. I’m glad I took a suggestion from one of the PhotoVision artists to try all of the light layers and learn what they can do… I also did a homemade vignette here for the first time, burning around the edges. Good/Bad/thoughts?

Sometimes I come across a photo which I like, but know it’s just not 100% great… this was one like that. I liked the idea and the image, but in the original, the ladybug and the leaves were almost the same color (taken in Yosemite in early December). There was also some distracting elements- the leaves in the lower right corner were in focus, but which dragged the eye downward (I felt). So I played, experimenting. I think my weekend pictures will be more on this level from now on- I’ll still post fav images if I am really in the mood, but I’ll try to save the great ones for the week. That means, though, that I’ll have more experimental and fun ones on the weekends, and sometimes those get the most responses. So don’t walk away on the weekends… unless you have a life or something (unlike me).

Anyways, OnOne PhotoTools has been a good help lately, so I went there. I’m finding that I use that for blur and glow pics mostly, and I wanted to explore more filters. This photo got the antique color filter and the 81 warming filter. I also went back into Photoshop and Lightroom and blurred the area around the ladybug (masking rocks) and played with the ladybug’s coloring as well.

A fun experiment, for sure.

Enjoy my photography at www.kelleybard.com. This one isn’t there yet, but I depend on the comments of others to tell me what is good and what isn’t, so I factor in responses here, on facebook and on flickr to get ideas of what to post in the future.

**Speaking of future posts, I have a photo which I’ve been working on since November which I’m finally happy with- that will be my photo tomorrow. For Boulderites, it’s an image from one of your amazing local sites. Check back to see the image- hopefully stunning HDR (already submitted to hdrspotting.com as well). **

**The 2 images which I created for Japanese Earthquake support are on my site at www.kelleybard.com/donation. I have had many visits but not many purchases and I’d love comments on why you think that may be. I really hope to be able to help in this small way. I really, really like the idea of giving back, though, so I will be working to build relationships and add images monthly or so which will be “donation” images. Suggest some organizations and causes to me, I’ll be working with the companies to bring some knowledge and hopefully some financial support their way in the future.**

I really like the memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. I took this image (or set of images, as this is a cropped HDR from 3 exposures) in the late summer. This is part of the Korean War Memorial, which was something I stumbled across on a past trip… literally it is a section I had never visited before, and I was walking in the dusk when I came across these statues- in a line, coming out of the trees, apparently on guard for attack… I love the details, the placement, the idea… I was glad to get to take this photograph, and hopefully it is a worthy image of the statues. The original photos had a large chunk of burned out sky which was very boring and distracting. I tried to add textures but I still didn’t like the image much, it took so much away from these statues. I finally got the idea to crop it, and I like this much more. It loses a bit of the nice sunbeams, but overall I’m happier with it now.

Uploaded to www.kelleybard.com, as well as my facebook, flickr and buzztown pages. I would suggest being a fan on facebook or buzztown, as you can find out about deals (I also post about them here). My website has the best resolution of them all, though, for viewing the images. So there are reasons to check each! 🙂

Just two different versions of a photo I liked. This was a quick snap… I looked up, liked how the balloons looked grouped like this, and caught the image. Played with the sky in Lightroom and the whole image in Photoshop until I liked it fine. I think the black and white is my favorite, but not totally sold on either… but a fun shot for sure. Not what I usually see when I think of balloon images, anyways, which is always good in my mind (for creativity if nothing else). Enjoy!

Also on facebook, flickr and my website. And a notice to all… HDRspotting.com is featuring my photo “Ascent Into the Turbulent Sky” right now! Check their page http://www.HDRspotting.com if you want, or look for kelleybard there. Once you click on one image you can keep checking out others by me forever… every click helps, too!

This photo was taken early one morning in Hawaii. It was one of my last days there, and I knew from before I had even arrived that I wanted to shoot in this area. It’s called the Valley of the Temples, and it’s an amazingly beautiful area near Kaneohe, on Oahu. I had been there often before, but this time I was bringing my camera… Well, I arrived shortly after sunrise, having spent the sunrise time watching and shooting the filming of “Pirates of the Caribbean: 3” (which I have posted an image of, and will post another one soon). When I arrived at this valley, which is also a large cemetery, my main plan got derailed. I was really hoping to shoot at the Buddhist temple in the valley, but it was not open for several more hours. I tried my best to charm the local guy manning the gate, and he reluctantly allowed me into the main cemetery area to shoot some there. I was told that if I was a professional photographer, I would have to pay extra anyways to take photos at the temple (alert! to anyone who tries to go there with a nice camera and tripod).

So these sheer hillsides and the morning fog really called to me, and I set up for several fun shots. This one was one of my favorite, as I rarely have the patience to wait for a great image… but this one was worth it. I saw the sunline creeping down the branches and knew that I could wait just a few minutes and catch the first open flower in the morning light if I just sat… I waited and was rewarded with this.

Post processing was basically just cleaning up the image a bit, lightening the browns in the undersides of the leaves and making sure that you could see as much mountain as possible through the fog.

As always, I love to hear comments on my photos, feel free to speak up!

Daily photos are posted on my facebook and flickr pages, and exceptional images from those are added to my website at http://www.kelleybard.com. If you want to see all my work without my blabber, check that out!

*Upcoming news: I’ll be trying out some new photo filters, etc from various companies in the near future, keep your eyes open for reviews and test runs on photos!